Toshinori Sugimoto

Li-ion Battery Performance with FSI-based Ionic Liquid Electrolyte and Fluorinated Solvent-based Electrolyte

We evaluated the electrochemical behavior of a LiNi1/3Mn1/3Co1/3O2 (NMC) electrode in a neat ionic liquid, 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium bis(fluorosulfonyl)imide (EMImFSI), electrolyte. According to charge/discharge measurements, the discharge capacity of the NMC cathode in EMImFSI at 1 C in a voltage range of 3.0-4.5 (vs. Li/Li+) shows 165 mAh g-1, which is higher than that in a conventional electrolyte, EC+DMC. The rate capability of a cell with EMImFSI exceeds that with EC+DMC, especially at high rates, probably due to a low resistance at the electrode/electrolyte interface. These results suggest that EMImFSI is a suitable electrolyte for Li-ion batteries utilizing a NMC cathode. Also, we applied fluorine-containing solvents (FCSs) to an electrolyte for Li-ion batteries with a cobalt oxide (LiCoO2) cathode to enhance the upper voltage limit and investigated its electrochemical properties in a proposed FCS-based electrolyte. A test cell containing a FCS-based electrolyte exhibits high and stable discharge capacity for 30 cycles even with a high upper cutoff voltage of 4.5 V when compared with a cell containing a conventional electrolyte.